The $7 hockey stick rack

Hockey sticks are a pain to store. I guess I could put mine in a closet, but I have little closet space to begin with. Plus, I don't want them buried behind a bunch of other things. Hockey sticks also don't stand too well on their own. For a while, I was stashing them behind my bedroom door, but they would fall down if the door hit them, and also mark up the walls. One day, I decided to go to the hardware store to buy some wood to make a stick rack -- but I found something better and easier that cost only $6.98 plus tax.

Bear in mind that I'm not the most handy guy around. I like putting together IKEA furniture, but do not enjoy cutting wood, drilling holes and such. While browsing the aisles of Home Depot, I found these "Ladder Hooks," made by a company called Tornado Hooks. They came in various widths and lengths and you don't even need to drill pilot holes first. Nor do you need to find a stud in your wall; the included wall fasteners bored easily into drywall using a typical Phillips-head screwdriver. $21 bought me three sets of hooks, which I used to hang my sticks, Shellie's sticks, some street hockey sticks and some game-used Blackhawks sticks.

Now, I could have built a stick rack, and it might have looked nicer, but it would have taken up valuable floor space. What is great about these hooks is that I was able to hang them high enough that I could fit my hockey bag below them. Plus, we have dogs, and dog fur would sometimes stick to the tape on the hockey sticks. Unless my dogs learn how to fly, my sticks will be fur-free.

The two hooks are approximately 1.5" apart, which is wide enough for the shaft of a typical hockey stick, and are rubber coated, so they won't scuff up my sticks. The hooks that I bought are 6.5" long and hold up to six hockey sticks. They are rated to hold up to 15 lbs. if hung on drywall, or 30 lbs. if mounted to a wood stud. Hockey sticks weigh around 1 lb. or less these days, so putting six sticks on one set of hooks would be around a 6 lb. weight load -- far less than the 15 lbs. that these hooks are supposed to hold if mounted on drywall. If you own less than six hockey sticks, there are different hooks (J-Hooks, U-Hooks, etc.) that are smaller and cost less.

What I really like about these hooks is that they let me transform dead space into storage space. Face it, you can't put something bulky on the wall behind a door. The hooks that I bought jut only 7" from the wall and give me a nice place to put away my sticks after playing.

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